Terrible Friend

6

Beverly yells. "Shut up Jaxolox!"

There is a loud crack in the air and Albert stiffens. Jax and the other voices in his head stop talking immediately.

"You can hear him?" Albert asks. 

<She can hear me?> Jax repeats the question. 

"Yes. I can hear him. Annoying as ever." Beverly answers.

Questions start to pour out of Albert like a waterfall.

No one else had ever acknowledged Jax before. The called Albert crazy, told him he was hearing things, and was medicated. He wanted to know how she did it. He was confused, but more in awe.

Beverly stops Albert's verbal dribble with a wave of her hand. 

"That's not important right now. I need to get you out of here and I need you to come and show me what you saw in the gallery. Let's go." She stands up straight, walks through the doorway, and waits for Albert to follow.

Albert stands there, staring out the door after her, not realizing she expects him to follow her. No interrogation ever has gone like this one had. He had no idea what to do.

Beverly steps back into the room and asks "Unless of course you want to stay here. Shall I send Kovach back in?" Albert snaps out of his stupor and bolts to the door and follows her out.

"You're that detective guy that finds the lost things, right?"

"Ummm, yeah. That's me. You lost something?"

"Yeah, the necklace for starters.  I don't know what else yet. That's why I need you to come with me back to the gallery."

They stop at the evidence counter and collect Albert's belongings. There is a hold up because Kovach has not returned with the evidence bags yet. The girl behind the counter tells Albert to take a seat. She'll call him when she has his belongings. 

Beverly shakes her head and huffs. "Just stay right here."  

Albert looks at the girl at the counter and back to Beverly and shrugs. He swings his arms and starts whistling quietly. Jax is going nuts inside his head. He ignores him. 

Beverly pulls out her phone, presses a button, and puts the phone to her ear.  "So, we are in the habit of detaining non-criminals around here by not bringing their belongings back to evidence?" She nods her head while a tiny inaudible voice comes through the speaker. "I see. I also don't care.  Tell him to get it back here now. The longer I wait around and see the shape this place is in the more I start to regret my investment."  She hits a button the phone and drops it into her pocket. 

She winks and smiles at Albert. "We will be done here momentarily."  She walked over to the missing people board and started making a note of who some of the new ones were and what probably happened to them.

Albert was stunned. He stood there beside the evidence window and just stared at Beverly. Jax took the opportunity to chime in with his thoughts on Kovach and Beverly. Cursing abounded and it was all Albert could do to tune him out.

After a few minutes, the woman behind the window returned with a large yellow envelope. She slid a clipboard under the glass and told Albert to sign it.

Albert looked at Beverly. His gut told him not to sign anything until he had ALL of his things back. He now knew who it belonged to and he wanted to be the one to return it to her. He got paid better that way. He sent a questioning look in Beverly's direction.

Beverly returned an understanding nod and then looked at the girl and Kovach. "The procedure is to make someone sign that they received their belongings before actually receiving them, then?"